Always look at the bright side of war: Iraq has now a “robust” Paralympic team
Norman Whitfield wrote this song, ‘War,’ asking what it was good for. ‘Absolutely nothing,’ was the answer.
Obviously, Halliburton and the arms industry at large will not agree with that sentiment – and neither will most politicians who are not doing as well at the polls as they think they should be doing.
Would George Bush have been reelected without the ‘benefits’ of 9/11 and the subsequent military campaigns? Most pundits agree he would not have been.
Talking of which: the Iraq war, to be precise, this story made it into many of the world’s papers today – and it is heart-breaking:
BAGHDAD: Iraqis love sports. Yet after five years of war, Iraq’s chances of fielding a competitive Olympic team are vanishingly small. Playing fields, pools and gyms are in disrepair. Athletes are targets for assassination. Only one, a weight lifter, qualified for the Beijing Olympics, the second Summer Games since the U.S. invasion in 2003. War and hardship, though, have not destroyed all of Iraq’s dreams for international competition. The country, which has been in three wars in two decades, has a robust Paralympic team.
Nice, isn’t it, how war is redeeming itself in this fashion? The country has been ripped in three very bloody parts, God knows how many people have been killed, or how many have been forced to flee their homes, their cities and their country. God knows how much the damage to the whole infrastructure is in petro-dollars…
… and yet, great news! Thanks to the war there are now, again, God knows how many candidates for the country’s Paralympic team.
Oh brave new world that has such headlines in it!
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